Mincan

Joined

• started 32 topics
• posted 748 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by Mincan

• 
  17

  The difficulty of recovering from JW teachings

  by DT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's difficult to free yourself from years of cult influence.

  i'm concerned that i may still be suffering from hidden assumptions that i haven't considered.

  i'll have to examine my thinking for the rest of my life, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.. it would be easier if we could reject everything we were taught, but that's not really possible.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  Amen
• 
  50

  Dumping out my purse

  by sweetface2233 in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  ladies, how many of you have had this happen?

  your cell phone is stashed in your purse and it starts ringing.

  you plunge your hand in, hoping to grab it and begin the call.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  Jesus that amount of unorganised stuff would send me into neurotic rage! - I'm OCD

  However, I hate the stereotypes against guys that use a shoulder bag... (I hate all gender roles) I mean they don't have to be feminine at all in design, decorum, or fashioning... ahem...maybe I'll say "F*** em all" and just use one anyway, in the summer when I'm walking or whatever sorry to say jean pockets just don't cover what I need. I don't have a car...and a backpack is far too redundant, and I can't leave everything in my bicycle's pannier bags, lest they be stolen.
• 
  4

  No longer interested

  by cluless in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i had a couple of witnesses at the door.an old man (ovbiously an elder and totally under the influence of watchtower doctrination.the other a very pleasant young sister late teens).

  my initial responce was goodbye but thanks for calling.

  then i thought of young sister.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  Yep, the most basic truth one can learn (and one of the few) is, a truth cannot be proven untrue, otherwise it is not a truth. I mean this goes without saying but if current witnesses would just understand it's implication. Unfortunately they take it as a reason that they don't have to research.

  THUS, no question should be feared.
• 
  17

  My kid comes home from the meeting worried about the devil. I'm not happy.

  by jambon1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this was one of the many reasons that i left the org.

  i just could not agree with some of the beliefs & ideas that kids are exposed to at the hall.

  having not been raised in the org, i never had any idea what effect it all had on kids.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  Is it just accepted that the children are going to be raised as JWs?

  If this ever happened to me, the only logical course I could see would be to give the children the choice. Obviously, your wife may not like that as any person given both sides of the equation are more than likely not to automatically choose the WT. Maybe you should ask her why that is?
• 
  54

  Do you find yourself funny?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you ever laugh at what you do, or just laugh at what others do?.

  i think i laugh more at what i do, than what others do....yep i find myself funny.. .

  people think i'm nuts most of the time.... so, what's the funniest thing you did recently?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  I laugh at myself often, sometimes the laughter is in frustration, mostly it's in those moments of reflection and acceptance of something.
• 
  48

  If Your Aged Parent Asked U Not To Give Them Blood, Would U Agree?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  be honest.

  if your jw parent trusted you to comply with their wishes, would you honor their request?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  Haha, I love that reasoning...
• 
  4

  When You Lie...Whose Feelings Are You Trying Save?

  by new boy in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i never lied so much as when i was a jehovah's witness.

  it started at bethel, when a bethel overseer asked me to agree with his opinion, when i knew it wasn't right....."fear of man"...funny term "fear of man.

  " it seems the only time i really had it, is when i was afraid of the "men" in "god's organization.".

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  That's why I could never be a fader, I'm far too sensitive to congitive dissonance. (although I have to admit being a spy is very enticing sometimes, emphasis on sometimes, most times I just couldn't care less because of the fact it is a lie as you say). If I don't believe in something, it's pretty hard to get me to do it.

  I loved using the example with my mother of cutting grass and raking leaves. I find both activities retarded in principle. Cutting grass (that probably isn't a native species anyway) to conform to some post-industrial concept, while wasting precious fossil fuels and energy. Leaves fall on the ground to return nutrients to the soil as they break down, if you rake them, this doesn't happen. They called me lazy, neglecting any other hard work that didn't fit into their preconceptions.

  My mother continually accuses me of having hidden my true feelings about the Watchtower for the past few years. In reality, I was confused, but I never doubted their correctness until the month I did leave. I keep telling her this and she has finally accepted it. I told her when I had nothing to say it was because I didn't know anything either.
• 
  11

  Hi all just a question

  by wannaknow in

  1. social
  2. family

  could someone please tell me what do jehovahs witnesses think of disabled people?.

  someone told me they have a attitude like "if it isnt perfect then god does,nt love it".

  could someone please tell me if that is true?.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  That's not true. Witnesses in my experience are just as caring, if not moreso, than average. They see something that Jehovah will cure in the New Order (TM), and seeing these people reaffirms their belief system.
• 
  19

  My conscience

  by civicsi00 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've only been on this forum for a short while, but i love it here!

  i have a question for everyone.. first of all, about a year and a half ago, i got on the internet to search for some jw forums.

  i didn't find any right away, but what i did find was information about the wt and all of its inconsistencies.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  How do you guys cope with wanting to tell everyone everything?

  At first, I felt as you did.

  Now, when a witness wants to talk to me about coming back, I give them their time to say all they want to say and I'll agree with them from their point of view. It really doesn't bother me what they believe. If they want to argue doctrine, I might get into it a little with them, but with a pretty laid back attitude, I must restate, I could really care less what someone believes as far as this cult is concerned.

  I only told my mother my reasons for leaving once. That was it, and it was right around the time I left. I never give her more reasons that I have found later that have reinforced my decision (really I don't need anything anymore anyway, so it all works). We both agreed early on not to talk about it with each other, which is fantastic and I'm very fortunate for that (it still didn't help my transition period at all though).

  I haven't talked a JW personally since about half way through last year, I found myself even then when I was in my indignant mode to not care about it too much, even though I was reading Dawkin's God Delusion right in front of him at a circuit assembly. The reason being that I already know pretty spot on what they are going to say. You have this ability too, we all do. This makes debate with witnesses very boring. I can already tell what direction their brain will go once I say something, because I used to argue evolution, etc with bright schoolmates, etc (it use to disgust me when I thought back, now I just get a chuckle with them), and I was very schooled in JW creationism/logic [oxymoron]/etc, moreso than the average witness. For example at the age of 15 I was researching archeology from secular sources to confirm WT documents, and had probably memorised every important biblical event with it's calender year (example 1513 BC for Israelite exodus - not confirmed in other sources of course). I was doing this because I was into history with a passion and was creating RTS game campaigns based on Israelite conquests, etc. (Age of Empires was fun!) I was also learning about their proof for the flood and antidiluvian water canapy around the same time. Like the scientific stuff I liked to learn about I found out most witnesses didn't care less about. They were more concerned with how bible doctrines fit together (no wonder, that stuff could be moulded moreso).

  This is how I deal with it: I just don't care. I hope this helps. I realise my mother and the people I care about most in this thing are the ones that are really sincere. Their sincerity causes another hurdle to overcome, they will see the evil in the world and it will overwhelm them. They are the ones that would stay in just for friends and be happy doing it. My mother will always be in this organisation. I accept that. Probably only because in my case it doesn't stop her from missing me so much she still talks to me. If I were baptised and had been shunned, I might be more angry. I'm sorry if you will have to go through this, as you are baptised. I have a pretty good hunch my mother would still talk to me even if I was baptised, as she was raised in an Italian family that considers blood stronger than anything else. I wasn't raised in this family, but I'm a part of it now, and it's a shock to my system. Adjusting.

  Good luck!
• 
  17

  The difficulty of recovering from JW teachings

  by DT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it's difficult to free yourself from years of cult influence.

  i'm concerned that i may still be suffering from hidden assumptions that i haven't considered.

  i'll have to examine my thinking for the rest of my life, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.. it would be easier if we could reject everything we were taught, but that's not really possible.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Mincan

  I for one take a lot of my JW teachings to heart.

  As with all mythologies including the bible, there are central themes present throughout, and usually for the benefit of civilisation.

  A brief list of things I was raised to do/believe/etc (its hard to say what my mother would have taught me without the JWs though): Honesty, Respect for others, Not seeking money as the prime directive, Patience (god did we ever need that!). I'm glad I can use these learned behaviours when they benefit me. I can also take them off now without feeling guilty (i.e. white lies to make people feel better, although I'm still usually brutally honest even when I don't have to be, just because that's the way my personality developed, it's an ingrained habit now; Now I can lie to the authorities when I feel I should without feeling guilty, there are things that the government shouldn't need to know about the citizenry; etc)

  I have found it easy to reject everything that the WT taught. That was never a problem. My problem is the regret I felt in believing. I've learned now that regret is essentially a useless emotion. Making a mental note of beneficial teachings was good for me, it might piss others off though.